Therianthrope

A Therianthrope is a person who is, feels, or believes he/she is in part or whole (non-physically) one or more non-human animals on an integral, personal level. [1] A person experiencing Modern Therianthropy, which is based on either spiritual, psychological, and/or neurobiological experiences that lead a person to identify as a non-human animal. Therianthropes understand that they have physical human bodies.

Therianthrope was being used in Alt.Horror.Werewolves as early as 1995/96. Around 2005, Therian became the commonly used short form of Therianthrope, replacing the old term Were. The term “therianthropy” was first mentioned in AHWW on December, 14, 1994.[2]

The words therianthropy and therianthrope originates from a portmanteu of the Greek words Therios and Anthropos (animal and human respectively) which, combined, loosely translate to "human animal" or "animal man".